News

F-35 Espionage

1/23/2014

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federal grand jury in Connecticut indicted
former Pratt & Whitney employee Mozaffar Khazaee on Jan. 21 on two
counts of interstate transport of stolen property for attempting to ship sensitive
materials about the F-35 strike fighter program to contacts in Iran. Per court
documents cited by the Hartford Courant
and other news sources, Khazaee, a 59-year-old dual Iranian and US citizen,
worked as an engineer performing strength tests on P&W’s engines before he
was laid off this past August during a restructuring by the company. Afterward,
Khazaee packed up boxes of documents, schematics, technical manuals, and other
sensitive information related to the F-35 and sent them to California, for
shipping to Iran, where federal Customs and Border Protection agents
intercepted the package. Khazaee was arrested Jan.
9 at Newark International Airport where he was attempting to fly to Germany.
He then planned to catch a connecting flight to Tehran, Iran. Pratt &
Whitney spokesman Ray Hernandez told the Daily
Report the company “will support the government’s investigation in any way
necessary,” noting P&W is just one of three companies identified in the
criminal complaint. “Protecting sensitive technical data is one of our highest
priorities,” said Hernandez. The US Air Force Office of Special Investigations
is investigating the case along with the FBI and CBP. If convicted, Khazaee
faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each charge.